The Possibility of Intellectual Intuition: A Confucian Perspective

This paper responds to Kant’s philosophy from the perspective of Chinese philosophy, based on the doctrines of Song-Ming Neo-Confucian scholars. The article first points out the limitations of Kant's concepts of the ‘thing in itself’ (Ding an sich) and ‘intellectual intuition’ (intellektuelle Anschauung). It then introduces certain philosophical ideas from Song-Ming Confucianism in an attempt to transcend these limitations. The analysis primarily focuses on Zhu Xi's theories of the ‘relationship between principle (li) and material force (qi)’ (li-qi guanxi) and the ‘doctrine of the mind of the Way and the human mind’ (daoxin renxin shuo). Through this, the paper aims to demonstrate that in traditional Chinese philosophy, intellectual intuition and sensory intuition are ultimately the same intuition. However, the different levels of existence of the ‘thing in itself’ that stimulate the mind to produce intuitions result in different contents of intuition.